PPSR & PPSA

The Personal Property Securities Act (PPSA for short) and the Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR) came into effect nearly five years ago, yet some businesses have never heard of these terms. Regardless of the size or type of your business, the PPSA is likely to affect you.

So what is a “security interest”? A security interest acts like a charge or mortgage over personal property that secures a payment. It allows a supplier to retake possession of the goods it supplied if the customer fails to pay their debts. By registering their interest on the PPSR, the supplier is making sure that their rights are enforceable. To help explain how securities interests and the PPSR may affect you, here is a tale based on a true story but for educational purposes only[1] of course.

Seem complicated? It can be; which is why you need to understand your rights to protect your goods.

This case was determined largely in favour of the customer; but it shows the range of outcomes that can occur when you do (and do not) register your security interests. If you supply goods on credit then make sure your contracts specify what the buyer can do with those goods, whether you can register a security interest and if you do have that right, make sure to register it. Otherwise you too might miss out on reclaiming your goods.

A registration on the PPSR means that if your customer doesn’t pay, or goes broke, you are in the best position to get your goods, or their value, back. If you do have any registrations that transferred across to the PPSR when it started in 2012 and you haven’t taken any action, your registration may no longer ensure your interests are protected.

When the PPSR was established, it replaced over 30 registers (which recorded “security interests” in all types of personal properties). Registrations were automatically moved across to the PPSR on 30 January 2012. Many of these registrations migrated with missing or incomplete fields. The PPSA, provided a grace period, allowing the creditors/secured parties time to fix and update these migrated registrations.
However, this period is coming to an end on 31 January 2017 for registrations that were migrated without an end date.

The PPSA is about registration; it is no longer about ownership rights. If you had (and continue to have) a relationship with a customer or supplier where, prior to 2012, you held a charge over goods (cars, stock, crops etc) and have done nothing about it recently, we strongly recommend you search the PPSR now. If your charge migrated across to the PPSR and has not been claimed or amended, your rights may be ineffective and you may lose rights to recover the goods.

Related Article

Personal Property Securities Register: PPSR – PPS huh?

It has now been over four years since the Personal Properties Securities Act 2009 (Cth) (PPSA) took substantive effect on 30 January 2012.However, many businesses remain oblivious to the PPSA register and the serious consequences that can f...